Advancements in networking and computing technologies have transformed many aspects of everyday life and in particular have transformed computers from being low performance/high cost devices capable of performing elementary word processing and simplistic/basic mathematical computations and manipulations to high-performance/low-cost machines capable of a myriad of disparate and highly complex functions and utilities. For instance, computers have become household staples rather than luxuries, educational tools, and/or entertainment centers, and can provide individuals and corporations tools to manage and forecast finances, control operations such as heating, cooling, lighting and security, and store records, and images in a permanent and reliable medium. As further illustration, at the consumer level computing devices can be employed to aid users in paying bills, tracking expenses, communicating nearly instantaneously with friends and/or family across vast distances by way of e-mail and/or instant messaging, obtaining information from networked the repositories, and numerous other functions/activities.
As computing and network technologies have evolved and have become more robust, secure and reliable, more consumers, wholesalers, retailers, entrepreneurs, educational institutions, and the like have and are shifting business paradigms and are employing the Internet to perform business rather than utilizing traditional means. For example, today consumers can access their bank accounts on-line (e.g., via the Internet) and can perform an ever growing number of banking transactions such as balance inquiries, fund transfers, bill payments, and the like.
Enterprises and individuals are increasingly becoming interested in utilizing miniaturized handheld devices for various useful purposes, such as, watching and listening to multimedia clips and presentations, receiving and transmitting telephone conversations, text messages, and the like. Most modern handheld devices typically are equipped with multiple sensors and/or input and output instrumentalities (e.g., microphones, wireless transmitters, global positioning systems (GPS) engines, liquid crystal displays (LCDs), cameras, speakers, etc.).
Today, many people persist their favorite multimedia content (e.g., audio clips, albums, movies, and the like) to their PCs, hand-held devices, and the like, so that they can repeatedly listen or watch this stored content. Additionally, people often record without immediately watching or listening to the recorded content (e.g., recording television shows the future viewing). Nevertheless, as of yet there has not been a mechanism that assesses individual's collective partialities to particular multimedia clips and thereafter uses these perceived preferences to facilitate social interaction between those individuals with similar affinities.